Today, we introduce USA TODAY Network-California with an investigation into Proposition 47, one of the nation’s largest criminal reform efforts since three-strikes and the war on drugs pushed prisons to the brink.

Journalists from four publications – The Desert Sun, Ventura County Star, Redding Record Searchlight and Salinas Californian – combined efforts to produce a four-part series on Prop 47, Freed But Forgotten.

To understand how far we’ve come, it’s important to know where we began.

In June, Gannett sent more than 100 journalists to New Orleans for a weeklong conference on watchdog journalism organized by Investigative Reporters and Editors. As our industry has shrunk, Gannett’s investment in investigative reporting has expanded – nurturing the profession's most valuable, and timeless, virtue.

IRE and its members invest in analyzing and digitizing data while training thousands of journalists each year. And IRE is on the frontline in protecting access to public records and defending the First Amendment.

Before the trip to New Orleans, the reporters and I had discussed the project by phone, but the plan for Freed But Forgotten crystalized around a lunch table just off Bourbon Street with journalists from Palm Springs, Ventura, Redding and Salinas.

Data Investigations Editor Jill Castellano and Investigative Reporter Brett Kelman from the Desert Sun storyboard the first story in the Freed But Forgotten series in Palm Springs, Calif. (Photo: Greg Burton/The Desert Sun)

Like this topic? You may also like these photo galleries:

Over shrimp and grits and po’ boys, Kristen Hwang of Palm Springs, Jenny Espino of Redding, Cheri Carlson and Darrin Peschka of Ventura and Amy Wu of Salinas agreed to combine efforts to examine criminal justice reform in California.

A few at the table shared anecdotes about burglaries or car thefts that police attributed to Prop 47 with little proof. Spikes in crime inevitably were blamed on Prop 47 with no statistical support.

With journalists based in seven California cities, USA TODAY Network is well positioned to tackle complex statewide issues. As this project developed, investigative reporter Brett Kelman and data investigations editor Jill Castellano in Palm Springs and Redding editor Carole Ferguson joined the team.

Since New Orleans, reporters on the team have filed 65 public records requests and pored over thousands of pages of documents. Castellano spent months analyzing two and a half million data points of every arrest by every agency over a decade in California. Kelman reviewed more than 1,300 pages of handwritten notes on Prop 47 cases borrowed from a Riverside County judge.

The reporting team filed public records requests in almost all of California's 58 counties, interviewed district attorneys, public defenders, judges, criminologists and police officers from chiefs to beat cops. They combed through court records from the Redwoods to the border of Mexico. They hung out on Skid Row in Los Angeles. They visited drug treatment centers, prisons, courtrooms and police headquarters.

The journalists became determined to share stories of success and hardship in the wake of Prop 47. They hit the streets in Stockton, Oxnard, Visalia and San Pedro, discovering that many of California's newest ex-inmates were homeless, drug addicted and had little faith in the proposition that set them free. That insight became the face of our project.

As we translated our findings for video and graphics, Sean Longoria from Redding and Anthony Plascencia from Ventura came aboard. Jay Dunn in Salinas and Andreas Fuhrmann in Redding contributed photos. In Palm Springs, Brian Indrelunas, Christopher Weddle, Robert Hopwood and Denise Figueroa shaped the investigation for digital and social readers. Také Uda in Phoenix created designs for print that all four newspapers and the Visalia Times-Delta, a fifth USA TODAY Network site in California, are publishing.

Seven months in the making, Freed But Forgotten is an exhaustive look at the mistakes and accomplishments of Prop 47 since it passed in 2014. After two years of unfounded claims and counter-charges, we offer some truths.

Drug arrests have dropped dramatically, property crime has jumped slightly and nearly 200,000 felony convictions have been reduced to misdemeanors due to Prop 47. Some public defenders have reduced those convictions without notifying their clients.

Though the state said it will spend $34 million in Prop 47 savings on mental health treatment, substance abuse and diversion programs this fiscal year, not a dime has been spent. Prop 47 recordkeeping is abysmal and accountability is absent.

Each of the USA TODAY Network papers in California – Palm Springs, Ventura, Redding, Salinas, Visalia – contributed to this four-day series. This work is stronger because of those combined efforts.

Freed But Forgotten is round one for USA TODAY Network-California. At that lunch table in New Orleans, in a haze of garlic butter and Mississippi mist, we talked about a series of investigations.

We have just begun.

What is Proposition 47?

Proposition 47 was a 2014 ballot initiative that was passed by California voters with a 10 percent margin. The initiative immediately reduced drug possession and some smaller theft crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. Anyone who had been previously convicted of these crimes could petitioned to be resentenced to a misdemeanor, which led to approximately 13,500 inmates being released from crowded state prisons and county jails. Millions saved in prisons has been earmarked for rehabilitation, mental health treatment, school programs and victim compensation. The state is still divvying up this money.